Before Eight

The town clock of Hollin stopped at 7:41. The river holds still. The lanterns hang where they were. Everyone is waiting for eight. You are Sol. Wren left you the bench, a ledger, and one rule: do not use the hammer. Name the fault, mesh the painted teeth, match the part to the plate, and seat the train in order. The last six shifts walk one face from 7:41 toward the stroke. Thirty-five trials, written in full. Three kinds of pressure: look inside, mesh, one short. Three endings, all of them a strike at eight. The workshop record stays on this device. No account. No purchases. No ads. You can finish every trial offline, alone. A second device is never required. LOCAL MULTIPLAYER ON YOUR WI-FI / LAN Open BENCHES on the home row. Before Eight finds other workshops on the same Wi-Fi or local network by Bonjour automatic discovery — not the internet, not a server, not an account. Each found bench shows its chapter and the four readings on its clock: tension, entry, oil, rate. You see them. They do not write onto your movement. Sit down beside a bench to open local IM and to send a lesson. Refuse the local network and the lane is empty, with a way to Settings. The thirty-five trials still open. QR PAIRING — SHOW YOUR CODE, OR SCAN THEIRS If automatic discovery misses a quiet street, pair with a QR code drawn for this bench. It is not a web page. Show Mark holds up this bench’s QR code so the other player can scan it and join the same discussion group. Scan a Mark opens the camera viewfinder on the bench glass and reads the other device’s code. Only a Before Eight mark is accepted. A mark that has expired, a mark from another shop, or an address you cannot reach is explained on the paper. It does not fail in silence. When a mark goes cold, refresh a new one. Refuse the camera and you still play the thirty-five trials. You can still find a bench by Bonjour automatic discovery on the local network. LOCAL IM — BENCH NOTES Once two benches are connected, open Bench Notes. This is local instant messaging between workshops on the same network: a slip of paper on the bench, not a public chat room and not a cloud inbox. The first visit asks you to keep the bench civil. Until you agree to the terms, you cannot write and you cannot read new lines from the other side. The thirty-five trials stay open either way. A note can be pinned to work you already have, plus a short line if you want one: Pin Readings (the four numbers on your clock right now), Pin Ledger (the last line you wrote into the book), or Pin Order (the order, Wren page, or shift on the hook). Notes travel only between the benches in the group. They do not change who is right, they do not change your readings, and they do not skip a trial. You can report a line or block a bench. A blocked bench stays crossed out on the lane. TUTORIAL VIDEOS — WATCH WREN’S LESSONS Five official tutorial films live on this device. Open LESSONS from the ledger at any time. Watch, pause, and watch again, even before that chapter is unlocked, and even if no other bench is connected: How Wren read a stopped clock Blue into gold Blued, not bright Escape last One hole of tension Each film is a short lesson on how that chapter is played — story and method, not a still picture. The first time you install the app, lesson 1 plays before the first fault, so you watch how to read a stopped clock before you touch the movement. You may also record your own bench and send that lesson when a workshop is already connected on the local network. Refuse the microphone and the five official tutorials still play; only your own recording stays quiet.